PALM SPRINGS (Day 4 - part 2)

We continued our drive south and then west.

In the town of Joshua Tree, we met Big Josh... another of the infamous Muffler Men. He was formerly Mecca Man at El Tompa Mini Mart in Mecca (CA) and brought here in 2018. Sometimes he's given special outfits to wear.

The Muffler Men were created in the 1960s as promotional attractions and placed in front of such locations as Phillips 66, Sinclair and Texaco. His hands were made to hold a giant muffler.

A very old pump where the price per gallon could only be in cents! The nozzle was banged shut should anyone attempt to use it.

The town of Joshua Tree where joshua trees (makes sense) and saguaros lined the streets. A saguaro is a tree-like cactus that can grow over 40 feet tall.

On our way to Palm Springs...

Riverside County is the fourth-largest county in California by area (roughly the size of the New Jersey). It stretches roughly 180 miles east–west, from Los Angeles to the Arizona border.

Once in Palm Springs, we parked and had intended to walk around a bit... but it was SO hot out that we simply beelined to our destination... the Marilyn Monroe statue.

Apparently it was the town's 85th anniversary!

This was clearly the art district for there were many interesting installations.

The Fault Line Meditation... an introspective path of the San Andreas Fault. Who's fault it is? Signs read Not Mine and Not Yours, showing that sometimes a fault is just a fault. "Fault - a defect, break in continuity, imperfection or a responsibility for misfortune. It is easy to cling onto something unhelpful, creating an inability to grow, trembling instead of understanding, and eventually getting paralyzed on the fault - blaming childhood, politics, a cat allergy or worse, themselves. The lucky ones absorb the tectonic shifts, deepening the awareness of the fault."

Celebrating Amanda Gorman's poem "The Hill We Climb"

In an installation known as Babies, these large infants have appeared all over the world and are meant to serve as a wake-up call. Each one has a barcode as a face, making the statement about dehumanization and our tendency to put a number on everything... life as a commodity, with an eternal stream of production and consumption.

This 7'x15' public-participation mural started out as a blank paint-by-numbers at a 2019 art festival. The artist invited participants of all ages to fill it in using finger paints.

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